A commentator in (mirabile dictu) The Washington Post made an excellent point about how the war in Iran is being understood. “We are living through the first alt-war,” the Tel Aviv University scholar Jen Brick Murtazashvili wrote. On the one hand, we have the war as it is fought online. On the other, we have the war as it is fought in reality, on the ground. The two “have diverged so completely,” Murtazashvili noted, “that they might as well be happening on different planets. It’s not that people lack information; it’s more that they are constructing an entirely different alternate reality—one that confirms what they already believe.”
The online narrative—I hesitate to call it “reality”—takes place not just online but in the propaganda press more generally. The dominant theme here is excited angst and handwringing, typified by a recent cover story in The Economist, “Advantage Iran.” Yes, really. “A month of bombing Iran has achieved nothing. . . . For now, at least, the advantage lies with the Islamic Republic.”
Read Full Article: https://amgreatness.com/2026/03/29/the-first-alt-war-online-fantasy-vs-reality-in-the-iran-campaign/
